The Roots of ARMOR

Frederic Remington's "The Trooper" be-:ame the trademark of the Journal of the U. S. Cavalrv Association. The sketch first appeared on the Journal's front cover in 1903. One hundred years ago, in March 1cR38, a handsome quarterly titled llie Joiimal of the U. S. Cavaln, Association began publication at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This Joiinzal would be destined to record the step-by-step change in warfare by horse lo warfare by machine. Today, the Joiinral continues as ARMOR, the professional bulletin of the Armored Force. Mobile warfare in 1888 meant horses. Amounted army required officers and men skilled in horsemanship, familiar with specialized and complex equipment, proficient with saber and firearms, and schooled in modern cavalry theory. To advance the technical knowledge of mountcd fighting, a group of officers promoting "professional unity and improvement, and the advancement of the cavalry service generally'' organized the United States Cavalry Association at Fort Leavenworth in 1885. The Association's president was Colonel Wesley Merrit t, Fourth U. S. Cavalry, who started his military service in the pre-Civil War dragoons. The new U. S. Cavalry Association had close connections with Fort Leavenworth's School of Infantry and Cavalry Application, which was designed to bring graduates of the Military Academy, as well as other officers, up to standards necessary for the field. The school taught a full curriculum. The association was able lo act as a resource for the school. It maintained an extensive English and foreign language library, and many 8 L Fort Leavenworth was the home of the Army's school of Infantry and Cavalry a p plication. This lithograph of a Fort Leavenworth Cavalry review was first published in 1887. CREDIT Kansas State Historical Society. ol its member officers had firsthand Civil War and Indian War experience. The association's members met twice a month and presented papers. Equipment and technical considerations were important topics that often prompted sharp clashes of opinion in follow-up discussions: Could firearms best be used while mounted? Were sabers more valuable than revolvers? Might the cavalry act as an effective dismounted force? These were Captain Camillo C. C. Caw was an instructor at the Fort Leavenworth school as well as one of the Cavalry Association's earliest members. Carr served as the Journal's editor from 1890-

1894. Excerpts from his translation of de Brack's "Cavalry Outpost Duties," like many other works of foreign cavalry theory, were first published in the Journal. PHOTO CREDIT Fort Verde Historical Park. ARMOR - some of the issues explored during the association’s initial meetings. The association’s interests, however, were not limited to equipment and theory. Discussions covered serious cavalry problems, like desertion. One paper proposed that deserters might be identified by branding or tattooing. Another proposed a rather novel solution: photography. An extraordinary amount of Civil War history, and what might be the most important collection on horses, military equipment, and horsemanship ever published, filled the early journals. A publication committee edited the Joiinial until June 1890, when field duty required hy recent Indian troubles relocated many of the officers. Major Camillo C. C. Carr, First U. S. Cavalry, was then appointed as the Joiinicll’s first in-Fort Leavenworth about the time that The Journal of the U. S. Cavalry Association first appeared in March, 1888. Society. CREDIT: Kansas State Historical I. Major George B. Sanford, First U. S. Cavalry, was an early member of the U. S. Cavalry Association. He headed the Department of Cavalry at Fort Leavenworth’s cavalry application school. Sanford was one of the first contributors to the Journal in the March 1888 issue.

Arizona Collection, Arizona State University. dividual editor. He served as vice president of the association and editor of the Juiinial until December 1894. ly, all of the horses had been covered. That was a sad day.” The

U. S. Army’s transformation from horse to machine was complete. WWT halted the Joiintul’s publication, but in April 1920, the Journal resumed under the name Cavanp Joiinial and was published through ww 11. By 1943, horse-mounted cavalry was no longer useful to the Army. Military historian Constance Wynn Altshuler, wife of an Army medical officer at Fort Bliss, Texas, remembers what it was like as the Fifth Cavalry was finally dismounted. “It was a sad time,” she recalls. ‘The whole town was upset. In the officer club’s ballroom were silhouetted mounted horsemen in maneuvers. One by one, the horses were overlaid with silhouettes of tanks. Final-The word “Armmxl” was added to the Joimtal’s title in 1946, and in 1950, the name became simply ARMOR. It is in this format that the Joiintul’s heritage continues. Today, the roots of ARMOR are a century deep. Jim Schreier, a Fellow of The Company of Military Historians, is interested in the role of the U. S. Cavalry in the American West. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, ARMOR - 9